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Democrats Take a Tough Line on Florida Primary

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 — The Democratic National Committee, threatening to take the toughest line possible, voted Saturday to refuse to seat any Florida Democrat at the Democratic presidential convention in 2008 if the state party did not delay the date of its 2008 primary to conform to the party’s nominating calendar.

The committee gave Florida Democrats 30 days to propose a primary date that conformed with Democratic rules prohibiting all but four states from holding their primaries or caucuses before Feb. 5. But Florida leaders, who seemed stunned by a near-unanimous vote and the severity of the punishment, said they were doubtful they could come up with an alternative.

They said they were bound by the vote of the Republican-controlled State Legislature, which set the primary for Jan. 29.

Beyond what is emerging as a clear embarrassment for the party, the practical results of this dispute were unclear. To a considerable extent, it could prove to be little more than a reminder of how little authority the party appears to have over its nominating process this year.

Florida Democratic leaders said they were resistant to bowing to the party’s demands, having already refused twice. And assuming the party has a presumptive nominee by the time the convention is seated in Denver next year, it will be the nominee — not party officials — who would have the power to resolve a dispute over who is seated.

Aides to several candidates said it was inconceivable that in the end, a Democratic presidential candidate a year from now would penalize a state like Florida, going into a general election, by refusing to seat the state’s delegates.

But the aides, who requested anonymity to discuss tactical concerns, suggested that candidates might be wary to invest money and energy in Florida for a delegate-less primary if, at the time, the race is tight and candidates are in a contest to build up the biggest delegate counts.

“There are 30 days for this to get worked out, and our hope is it gets settled in a way that Florida is contributing delegates to the nominating process,” said David Plouffe, the campaign manager for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. “If they don’t come into compliance, that means they won’t be contributing any delegates to the contest and this will be nothing more than a straw poll.”

The vote by the national committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee laid bare a sharp division between one of the most politically important states in the country and a party that has been struggling to change its nominating calendar to accommodate party leaders, who object to the dominance Iowa and New Hampshire have enjoyed because they are first in the nominating process.

The party voted to allow two states, South Carolina and Nevada, to move their contests to the start of the year to provide regional and ethnic balance, and barred all other states from holding contests before Feb. 5.

The debate, coming at a time when other states are also threatening to move up their primaries, was the latest evidence of the extent to which the party’s nominating calendar is in turmoil.

Photo

Karen L. Thurman, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Committee, and Jon Ausman, a Florida member of the national committee, after a national meeting on Saturday in Washington.Credit
Andrew Councill for The New York Times

“This process is still a mess,” said Alice Travis Germond, the longtime secretary of the Democratic National Committee. “Eight years ago we said it was broken and getting broker. It’s now broker and getting more broker.”

Ms. Germond warned of embarrassing floor fights at the convention if Florida Democrats failed to come up with a date that met the party’s requirements.

Karen L. Thurman, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Committee, said she would go back to Florida and discuss what the party should do. The options include creating a state-party-financed primary that would take place after Feb. 5 — something that Ms. Thurman said would be expensive and potentially unfeasible — and challenging the party’s ruling in court.

“We have seen the strong feelings that have been relayed over this,” she said, referring to the committee’s vote.

“We do represent, standing here, a lot of Democrats in the state of Florida — over four million,” she said, adding: “This is emotional for Florida. And it should be.”

Under the rules passed by the Democratic National Committee, if Florida is not in compliance with the calendar it will automatically lose all 25 of its so-called super delegates — basically, elected officials and state party members — and at least half of its regular 185 delegates. But the committee voted, with one dissent, to impose the maximum penalty by refusing to seat any delegates should Florida not return with an acceptable plan.

The result was praised by Scott Brennan, the Iowa Democratic chairman, who, along with Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic chairman, flew to Washington for what in other years would have been the most routine of summer meetings by the Rules and Bylaws Committee. “It’s a harsh sanction, but you have to enforce the rules,” Mr. Brennan said.

In arguing for the Democrats to allow Florida to go early, Ms. Thurman and other party officials said that the party had unsuccessfully fought the effort by Florida Republicans to move up the date. Again and again, party officials presented themselves as victims rather than protagonists, and asked the party to grant them relief because of that.

“We’re asking you for mercy, not judgment,” Jon Ausman, a Democratic leader, told the committee.

But James Roosevelt Jr., the rules committee’s co-chairman, said he was not convinced that Florida Democrats had done all they could do. He said it was “clear that the Republicans were the moving force behind the selection of a date that violated both the Republican and the Democratic rules, but that the efforts to oppose that were form over substance.”

Committee members made it clear that they wanted to send a message to any state that might be looking to change its primary; the vote came as Michigan leaders are looking to move that state’s primary to Jan. 15. Committee members noted that there had been a long process in setting the calendar.

“We have voted on these rules,” said Donna Brazile, a member of the committee. “The process was very fair, very democratic in every step that we’ve taken.”

Ms. Brazile suggested that Democrats in Florida, given what happened there in 2000, should be particularly sensitive to what the party was doing. “I’m going to send a message to everybody in Florida — that we are going to follow the rules,” she said.

Michael Falcone contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Democrats Take a Tough Line on Florida. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe